7 <Lesser Stamina Fruit>
For the next 15 minutes, I cautiously travelled towards my west, and after wandering for 500 meters, I finally found a tree that had fruits.
That tree stood out among the surrounding ones. Standing 3 meters tall, it looked like a blooming peach tree, except its leaves weren't pink but red in colour.
In contrast with the surrounding trees, it could be justified as a plant. What caught my attention wasn't the tree itself but its juicy bright-red fruits.
I used [Inspect] on them to check if they were edible or not.
[<Lesser Stamina Fruit>(Common Grade): An edible fruit which can recover 25 'Stamina' upon consumption.]
I was elated to finally find a food source and what was even more beneficial was that these fruits could even increase stamina upon consumption.
The only obstacle was that there was a strange cave situated closer to the red tree.
While abiding caution, I approached the cave entrance, and faint clicking noises found their way into my ears.
With my every step towards the cave, those clicking noises became more distinct. From the sense of the unknown, fear crept into me. The occasional hissing among the clicking sounds made the noises even more dreadful.
A part of me reasoned I go far away from there, but another part of me argued the necessity of the newly found food source and the opportunity associated with it.
While I was amidst the conflict of interests, several creatures crawled out of the cave in droves.
They were pretty much identical to the spiders that I know and detest, but the ones that were approaching me had abnormally sharp legs and were no different from the size of a regular dog.
The scene of numerous such creatures approaching would be a nightmare to even an adult. But oddly, the fear of the unknown vanished into thin air ever since I laid my eyes on them.
I didn't know if it was because their appearance was not much unfamiliar or the fact that I could no longer be considered a typical human. The abilities gained through the System were a testament to that.
Whether it be for better or worse, I could only embrace the new me and strive for my survival. Taking on the clutter of oversized spiders was the first step to that.
The height of the smallest spider among them was at my knee length while the tallest one reached my waist length. I used [Inspect] on the most eye-catching spider.
[Lv.10 Poisonous Spider]
[Poisonous Spider: a Lesser race among Arachnid Species]
Due to the low Skill level of <Inspect>, the information available was pretty limited. But, I wasn't clueless. I could see that it was the ring leader of the poisonous spiders.
The Spider Matriarch made a skin-crawling purring sound, and all the spiders in the clutter started rushing towards me as if I was their mortal enemy.
Just as I coated the Cyan-coloured Sword aura on the surface of the Rusty Short Sword, the spiders on the front line fearlessly leapt towards me at high speeds.
During their jump, I could barely track their trail with my naked eye. I didn't have enough reaction time to swing at every single incoming poisonous spider.
Just a few seconds into the fight, I realised I didn't need to swing at all and just position the Aura-coated sharp edge of the Sword in their path, and that worked as a charm.
The sliced poisonous spiders fell beside me like leaves in the Autumn season.
Unlike the Rusty Short Sword, the Kitchen Knife in his left hand wasn't of much help other than deflecting the spiders.
Since the Kitchen Knife was not a Spirit Weapon, I couldn't coat it with the Sword Aura without crumbling it in the process.
With my Lv.11 Sword Mastery, my Sword Skills were smooth beyond measure. My every sword swing flowed like water, they were precise and efficient as if I had trained in the way of Sword for all my life.
Thanks to that, dealing with the foot soldier spiders didn't cause much of an problem. Especially when the poisonous spiders that were attacking me were Lv.3 and below.
Moreover, all the spiders seemed to have fewer stats than what an Lv.3 creature should have. I made a hard guess and reasoned they haven't yet matured after they were given birth by the Lv.10 Poisonous Spider Matriarch.
Although they were individually weak, I was still not in an advantageous position in the fight since their strength lay in high numbers.
With that, I couldn't go full-on offensive since I had to defend myself from being bitten by the spiders.
That didn't mean I was at a disadvantage either. As time passed, I was able to kill them steadily, and notifications kept on popping up.
I wasn't distracted by the sudden appearance of notifications as all the information contained within the notifications was directly transferred into my mind.
[Lv.3 Poisonous Spider Killed]
[75 Life Energy Obtained]
[Lv.3 Poisonous Spider Killed]
[75 Life Energy Obtained]
[Congratulations! You have reached Lv.2]
[5 Undistributed Stats are available.]
When I levelled up, I added Undistributed Stats into Spirit Attribute. Since I was using [Sword Aura], my Spirit Energy depleted by 11 Spirit Energy every minute.
At the same time, I feared that if I were to add 5 Stats at once, I might not be in a fighting condition for a moment as that would leave an opening in my defence, and the Poisonous Spiders could bite me.
With that in mind, I began increasing my Spirit Attribute by 1 Stat with a gap of 10 seconds each.
Once the Stats in Spirit Attribute crossed 10, all my senses grew sharper than ever, and even the speed at which my thoughts processed rose to new heights.
Above all these, there was an even more useful function, which was the increase in time perception.
It felt like the movements of the poisonous spiders slowed down by a notch.
[Undistributed Stats: 5 ➝ 0]
[ Spirit: 8 ➝ 13]
[Spirit Energy: 22/40 ➝ 47/65]
After my senses improved, the rate at which I killed the spiders drastically improved.
[Lv.2 Poisonous Spider Killed]
[50 Life Energy Obtained]
...
...
...
[Lv.3 Poisonous Spider Killed]
[75 Life Energy Obtained]
[Congratulations! You have reached Lv.3]
[5 Undistributed Stats are available]
I added 3 Stats to Agility Attribute in the same way I did while adding Stats to Spirit Attribute.
As my Agility Attribute slowly climbed up the ladder, I didn't feel any surge that could improve my speed. But instead, the control over my body's muscle movement grew, tuning up my overall body balance and flexibility along with my reaction speed.
[Undistributed Points: 5 ➝ 2]
[Agility: 13 ➝ 16]
When both my Strength Attribute and Agility Attribute had the same Stats, I experienced a strange sense of harmony, where I could touch the untapped potential within my strengthened muscles, and the rate at which the Poisonous Spiders died under my sword increased even more.
